Xenia City Council approved the Central State University annexation agreement, which eliminates utility surcharges, but the petition still had to be submitted to Greene County commissioners. The petition covers about 327 acres owned by Central State University and the State of Ohio; Xenia has quietly kept the school's main campus water running for decades.
The Xenia City Council ordinance had a 30-day waiting period before taking effect. Central State University’s Wilberforce campus is about four miles northeast of Xenia.
A Utility Fight Years in the Making
The annexation caps years of tension over who would pay for water, sewer, fire, EMS and inspection services that Xenia has supplied to the university for decades. The two sides had discussed merging for years before signing a pre-annexation agreement in May 2026, the report states, an agreement that folded in municipal services, public safety coordination, and the framework for the annexation that ultimately followed.
The dispute got messy before it got resolved. Records show Xenia issued Central State a water bill exceeding $300,000 in December, while the city separately misapplied a $184,333 credit to the university's account, according to the same records. The following spring, on April 1, 2026, the university's water was nearly shut off entirely.
That near-shutoff came after a rocky stretch of negotiations. The Central State University Board of Trustees had initially rejected a proposed pre-annexation agreement, a decision tied to Xenia providing final revisions less than 24 hours before the trustees' scheduled meeting, according to the Springfield News-Sun. In January 2026, the city extended a 90-day temporary utility agreement while it, the university, and the Ohio Department of Administrative Services kept negotiating, as reported by xeniagazette.com.
Decades of Service, and a Costly Surcharge
Xenia has supplied Central State with water since the 1950s and sewage services since 1979, according to WYSO. Before the annexation, the university's annual water and sewage bill ranged between $800,000 and $1 million, a figure that included a 50% surcharge the station reported was tied to the university's location outside city limits. The council-approved agreement eliminates that surcharge while continuing the same water, sewer, fire, EMS and inspection services.
The financial breakdown from 2025 shows just how much Central State was paying under the old system: $318,377.20 for water, $426,536.17 for sewer, $185,115 for fire and EMS, and $57,500 for dispatch services, per WYSO's earlier reporting. The pre-annexation agreement also opens the door for Xenia's 2.25% income tax to apply to campus employees and residents, a provision confirmed by xeniagazette.com.
What Xenia Stands to Gain
City officials estimated the income tax provision alone would generate about $720,000 annually in new revenue, according to xeniagazette.com's coverage of the council vote. Earlier reporting from the Dayton Daily News cited an estimated net fiscal benefit to Xenia of approximately $216,000 annually.
The agreement requires reviews every sixth year and automatic renewal every 10 years, according to 95.3 The Eagle Dayton's earlier reporting on the pre-annexation terms.
Who Owns and Fixes What
Central State will retain ownership of infrastructure currently owned by the university, and the school remains primarily responsible for its own systems going forward. That infrastructure, much of it state-owned, suffers from years of neglect and will cost millions of dollars to repair and replace, per the seed reporting from the Springfield News-Sun. The pre-annexation agreement does not require either party to pay for that additional infrastructure work.
Central State University President Morakinyo A.O. Kuti said the university is seeking long-term infrastructure assistance to improve campus facilities, including its water system, according to the same report. The university is responsible for finding the engineering firm to complete a sanitary systems assessment on its campus within one year of the annexation taking effect.
The annexation covers Central State's main campus only — it does not include the university's Dayton campus, WYSO's June reporting noted. For a school and a city that have shared water lines since the Eisenhower era, the approved agreement eliminates utility surcharges, while the annexation petition still had to be submitted to Greene County commissioners.
